Soldiers say focus was on duty, service

Six Iraq war veterans speak at Northampton Community College.

September 22, 2006|By Stephanie Fails Of The Morning Call

As six veterans of the Iraq war sat side by side and told their stories Thursday to a gathering of Northampton Community College students, the soldiers rarely mentioned the war on terrorism or the public's deepening dissatisfaction with it.

Instead they discussed their duties as soldiers. They said it isn't their job to have an opinion on whether the war is justified. It's their job to follow orders and serve their country. And they didn't want to talk about their combat experiences.

Sam Lebowitz, an Easton resident who was deployed to Iraq twice during his four-year tour with the Marine Corps, said he helped to rebuild the battered city of Baghdad.

Lebowitz said he is proud of the time he spent rebuilding and restaffing the city's elementary schools. He said he joined the Marines to serve humanity.

"You can throw out a lot of vague political reasons, but for me that was a pretty direct reason," Lebowitz said.

Spc. Joshua Davis of the Pennsylvania National Guard said he was trained not to ask questions during his tour in Iraq. That was fine with him.

"I didn't want to have a perception of whether we should be there or not," said Davis, of West Easton. "I kind of kept my opinion down."

What the public thinks about the war doesn't bother him.

He said he wouldn't feel comfortable sharing many of his experiences with anyone but veterans because no one could possibly understand without having gone through it first-hand.

"It was nothing like training," he said. "Nothing ever goes the way it's supposed to."

Keith Robert, who served in Afghanistan as a field medic and had previously spent six years in the Navy, agreed that nothing can prepare a soldier for combat.

"You have no idea where that next bullet is going to come from," said Robert, of Nazareth. "You can read about the bullets. Fine. It's not the same."

Robert, whose second child was born days before he returned from the war, said the team mentality is integral to maintaining morale, especially when no one really wants to be there.

"We didn't say, "Let's hop a flight and go to war!"' Robert said. "We don't make the decisions. We just fight the wars that come."

One audience member asked him why Osama bin Laden is still at large. Robert explained that bin Laden has been in Afghanistan for years and has had the time to build tunnels hundreds of feet beneath the vast mountains of Afghanistan. Most importantly, Robert believes that bin Laden has evaded capture because he has money.

"Money does a lot of things. We all know that in this country," he said.

Robert said the war is not going to end any time soon because even if bin Laden is captured, someone is bound to take his place.

"I think we all kidded that "let's just drop big bombs and walk away'," he said. "But we're still fighting that war."

Heidi Butler, the director of public information and community relations at Northampton, arranged the discussion called True Stories from Today's Soldiers.

Lebowitz, Davis and Robert, as well as another speaker, Army National Guard Spc. James Kresge of Upper Mount Bethel, are NCC students. Two other speakers -- Pennsylvania National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Robert Brockel Jr., of Bethlehem, and former Air Force Staff Sgt. Kraig McFadden of Grove City, Mercer County-- are NCC graduates.

About 30 students and faculty members attended the event including NCC sophomore Sarah Perry, who sought to gain some perspective on what her good friend, an enlisted Marine who's leaving for Iraq in October, would soon be going through.

"I was really mad that he was going," Perry said. "But I think I better understand now what he's doing. I'm very proud of him."